


frozen by the fear in me

by doctrpepper



Series: figure skating au [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M, figure skating AU, going bonkers and expanding the au already? its more likely than you think, music plays a prominent role
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 16:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19397974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctrpepper/pseuds/doctrpepper
Summary: zuko and sokka pick out music for zuko's skating routine





	frozen by the fear in me

**Author's Note:**

> i promise im still working on my other stuff i promise i s w e a r
> 
> anyway. this is based on a collection of real life events except more gay. i wish they'd been gay :/
> 
> there are two songs linked in the story and it would really enhance the experience to listen to them where they are ! but if you can't that's totally cool everything is explained well enough im hoping

Zuko holds up three CDs. "What do you think?" 

Sokka leans over the side of his bed to inspect the tapes, and Zuko starts to clean up the discarded ones strewn around the floor. 

"Nutcracker, Beethoven, and Stravinsky," Sokka says. He doesn't sound impressed. 

Zuko leans against the bed and takes them back. "I did a routine to the Nutcracker Suite," he says, frowning. 

"Everyone did a routine to the Nutcracker Suite." Sokka wiggles off the bed and drapes himself over Zuko's lap, giving himself access to the box of CDs Zuko had brought over with him. "You want to be in _my_ summer show? You have to pick something _interesting._ " 

" _Your_ summer show?" Zuko asks, smiling and resting his arms gently on Sokka's back. "Since when was the rink's annual summer showcase _your_ show?"

"Since I spent half my summer choreographing most of these kids' routines and also was consistently the only good employee at that entire establishment -" He aims a playful glare over his shoulder. "And don't you dare say Aang won employee of the month. He's not even a real employee, he works part time and never leaves the snack bar and should not have been counted." 

Zuko chuckles. It's still new to him, this bubble of happiness, but he's all the better for it. Sokka sends him a half grin before digging back into his CD collection and Zuko feels his heart swell. 

"Do you have _anything_ produced this century?" Sokka complains, brandishing Swan Lake. 

"I have some Hans Zimmer," Zuko responds. Well, maybe. He'd wanted it, and he's pretty sure he'd picked it up, but between his sister and his father he's not sure it's still there. 

Sokka clicks his tongue. "You do realize they legalized lyrics, right?" 

Zuko shrugs. It's not like his dad had cared, and his coach wouldn't have dared contradict him. 

Resigned to his fate, Sokka pushes himself up and shifts around so he's fully sitting in Zuko's lap. Zuko is hit several times with sharp elbows and knees, but as he wraps his arms around Sokka, he can't bring himself to mind. 

"I like instrumentals," he says, trying to defend himself somewhat. 

Sokka hums, then snaps his fingers. "I know." He cranes his head back to meet Zuko's eyes. "Tomorrow. At the rink. I'll have your music." 

Zuko hesitates. He's never been able to choose his own music before, and he'd wanted this chance to experiment with what he liked to skate to. This was a show, not a competition, just for fun, and he wanted something to express who he is, not who his father wanted him to be. 

But then he looks into Sokka's eyes. He looks serious, more so than ever before. Zuko takes a deep breath and realizes that he trusts Sokka. With his life. With his new, only recently discovered, free life. 

"Okay," he says. 

Zuko arrives at the rink early and ties up his skates, taking advantage of the time he gets to watch Sokka with the kids before their own ice time. The little ones are working on their group performance, set to the tune of that one song from Mulan. Zuko can't see Sokka where he's squatting against the rink wall, but he can hear him shouting encouragement as the kids perform from memory as best as little kids can. 

The zamboni doors open and Sokka stands up, clearing the kids away and even bodily lifting one of the smaller ones to carry her off the ice.

He deposits her gently in front of her bemused parents and spins around, lighting up when he sees Zuko watching. Zuko, in turn, lights up when he meets Sokka's gaze. He doesn't quite match Sokka's broad grin, but he gives a small smile, and that's when Sokka launches himself towards him, skates and all. 

Zuko barely manages to avoid toppling backwards at Sokka's hug. Both of them are in skates, and so neither of them have the best balance, but Sokka clearly doesn't care, and, honestly, Zuko doesn't either. He's just so happy to see him. 

"I have your music," Sokka says excitedly. Zuko recognizes a mischievous glint in Sokka's eyes, but he trusts him. He can hardly believe it himself, after all that's happened, but he trusts him. Sokka may joke around a lot, but he's earnest when it comes down to it. 

They take a moment to catch up as the zamboni does its job, giving Suki a wave as she passes by them, and when the doors open for the next practice, Sokka is off like a shot toward the music box. He hooks up his phone, then sticks his head out. 

"Get ready!" he yells across the rink, heedless of the other skaters just trying to warm up. They're all regulars so they're likely used to his antics by now. 

"Shouldn't I, I dunno, warm up first?" Zuko asks, once he's across the rink and next to Sokka like a normal person. 

Sokka waves his hand. "Just listen." And then he hits play. 

Zuko pushes away, absentmindedly going through his normal warm up as the opening measure plays on the speakers. It sounds familiar. Hauntingly familiar. He knows he's heard it before, but it's definitely an orchestral score, just not one he can place. Something seems a little off about it, something he can't quite put his finger on. 

Suddenly, with an explosion of cymbal and violin, the [chorus](https://youtu.be/UHm1rHpxbpw?t=43) hits. Zuko stops dead in his tracks. He knows exactly what song he's listening to. 

"Sokka, I am going to _murder you_ ," he hears Katara yell from the shop. Sokka is bent in half laughing, and everyone else on the ice is frozen, staring right at him. 

Zuko skates back to the music box. "Did you seriously just play an orchestral cover of Never Gonna Give You Up?" he asks. He's trying to sound annoyed, but he can't help the quirk of a smile pulling at the unburnt side of his face. 

Sokka is almost crying at this point. "Your face - you just - everyone's face -" He dissolves into more laughter. 

After a second more of pretending to be mad, Zuko relents and soon he's laughing too. He hates to admit it, but it had kind of sounded good. Not something he wanted to perform to, though. 

Sokka takes a deep breath, and calms himself down. "Okay, okay." He grabs his phone and scrolls through it. "I do actually have a song for you. I was digging for this one when I found that other one - and I had to do it, you know I had to take the opportunity. Had to do it to em, so to speak." 

Zuko leans his forearms on the wall, lips still quirked in a smile. That was so quintessentially Sokka. Equal parts silly and endearing. He feels his heart warm. Sokka had played a prank, sure, but unlike when his sister had played pranks when he was younger, he feels he can actually laugh along. It had been pretty funny, the second it had hit. 

"Okay, okay, here we go, here's your actual song," Sokka says, grinning over his shoulder. 

Zuko nods and pushes away, heading back to his warm up exercises. The [song](https://youtu.be/5PcWjq3I8Do?t=5) opens slowly, with a piano melody, which is something he'd always liked in a program. He starts to move along as a violin joins in, and feels the melody build. He feels himself going faster, his movements picking up, his body flowing along with the tune as it builds, slows, and builds again. He's still only doing a simple warm up, but he launches himself into the moves like he's already performing a routine, trying to match the music as best he can. Already, he's coming up with moves to match with the tune, taking notes of stops and starts and imagining what a fully realized routine would look like. This is exactly the sort of song he'd been thinking of choosing for himself, something that expressed who he is now, something equal parts soft and powerful, something a little sad but bursting with new life at the same time.

When the song fades out, he skates back over to Sokka. He's flushed with exertion already, but smiling. 

Sokka's smiling too. "What do you think?" he asks, breathless. He's flushed, too, even though he'd been in the music box the whole time. 

"I loved it, thank you." Zuko feels warm, and it's not just the workout. Sokka had found this song for him. Sokka had looked through a lot of songs, probably, enough to find an orchestral cover of a meme song, and had found this one, and had thought of what Zuko wanted from his music, and what sounded good. He'd heard this song and had thought, _Zuko would love this_ , and had been correct. Zuko couldn't have picked a better song for his first performance if he'd tried.

He had known very few people who'd cared about his tastes on stuff like this, and fewer still who knew him well enough or cared enough to get it right. The only one he can think of is his uncle. And now, Sokka. 

"It's called Shatter Me, by this violinist Lindsey Stirling, I'll send you the link so you can cut it how you want," Sokka is saying. 

Zuko trusts Sokka to do that. He trusts Sokka more than much else in his life, honestly. Right now he doesn't care about the program, or even the music. 

He leans forward and gently grabs Sokka's face and pulls him into a kiss. 

Sokka's surprised, at first, and then he's into it. It's a soft kiss, and over pretty quickly, since they're in a public place and Zuko is extremely aware of that, but he had just felt affection so strongly he'd just had to. 

Sokka smiles softly when he pulls away. They stare at each other for a while, lost in each other's eyes, both smiling gently and a little goofily. Then Katara pokes her head in the music box. 

"I'm glad you guys are having a nice moment, but Toph wants you to play her program, since you're monopolizing the music. And she says to tell you if you play Rick Astley again she's going to kick you with her toe pick." She's smiling, though, and she sends her brother a wink before heading back to the shop. 

Zuko and Sokka exchange one last soft look before Zuko reluctantly pulls away. He's got a program to choreograph, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> in which describing instrumental music is Very Hard Actually. i both did routines to instrumental music and played in my school orchestra i should know how. and yet
> 
> me rick rolling my whole rink including my friend threatening to murder me is real world events. sokka and i is the same. i linked the chorus so the joke would hit at the same time as in the story but give the whole cover a shot it absolutely slaps
> 
> also i will defend linsey stirlings shatter me to the grave it! slaps!
> 
> will i rewrite every prominent skating experience ive ever had but in an avatar au that is also gay? maybe so


End file.
